Playing your cards right: The 2018 Monaco auctions

The safe money might be on racing red – Bonhams’ Ferrari 625 Vignale Spider and RM’s Ferrari 250 GT TdF – but the Brits hold the wild card with the F1 car in which Ayrton Senna scored his sixth and final win in the Principality. Let’s look at next week’s auctions.
 
It’s all change this year; the Canadians and the Bond St boys are on the move. Bonhams’ central Fairmont hotel venue makes way for the untested Villa La Vigie, a little way out. Rob Myers’ team has relocated back to the Grimaldi Forum, closer to the circuit.
 
At 67%, the combined sold-by-number in 2016 was not great, though some cars flew. This year? Much younger entries, no make-or-break €10m+ headliners, and a broader selection. Monaco 2018 will be interesting rather than era-defining.
 
Watch Bonhams’ Porsche Carrera RS 2.7 and Mercedes 300 SL Roadster and RM’s Ferrari 275 GTB and Lancia Aurelia B24S Spider America to see which way the wind is blowing mid-year in Europe.
 
At a glance, Bonhams and RM Sotheby’s combined (2016):
 
* 141 cars (149)
* Average year of cars offered, 1976 (1967)
* Average mid-estimate price, €426.9k (€632.2k)
* Percentage of cars at No Reserve, 33% (36%)

Bonhams at Villa La Vigie, 11 May 2018
 
* 53 cars
* 36% offered at No Reserve
* Headliner: 1953 Ferrari 625 Vignale Spider (above), €4.5m to €6.5m
* One(s) to watch: ‘Refer Dept.’ ex-Ayrton Senna 1993 McLaren-Cosworth MP4/8A and €750k to €1m, ex-Ayrton Senna 1984 Toleman-Hart
 
Topping the bill here is the 625 Vignale Spider, a diminutive early 1950s racer, with desirable factory and Hawthorn history but lacking a V12 and with typically upright lines. Look to Gooding’s more recognisable 1954 Ferrari 500 Mondial that sold for $4.455m at Scottsdale for a guide. At €4.5m to €6.5m, this one might need help.
 
The F1 cars are interesting. The ex-Alboreto V6-turbo Ferrari is ‘analogue’ and built when Enzo was alive. This, the Senna McLaren and the 1984 Toleman-Hart in which the Brazilian made his sensational Monaco debut are emotional icons with of-the-moment appeal. In 2016 Bonhams shifted an ex-Schumacher Benetton for a whopping €1,058,000 with premium (est. €220k to €280k) and we tip these F1 cars to do well.
 
One we’d like to take home? The ex-Peter Schetty (factory driver then Scuderia manager) Ferrari 365 GT4 BB. A great colour – Grigio Ferro with red – terrific provenance and unrestored (‘beautifully preserved’, as Bonhams prefers), this car has it all. At around €300k plus Bonhams’ chunky 15% European premium, that’s about $415k, pretty well on the money.

RM Sotheby’s at the Grimaldi Forum, 12 May 2018
 
* 88 cars
* 31% offered at No Reserve
* Headliner: ex-Wolfgang Seidel 1957 Ferrari 250 GT 'Tour de France' (above),  €7m to €9m       
* One(s) to watch: €1.4m to €1.8m, ex-Leo Kinnunen 1973 Porsche 911 Carrera RSL 2.7 and €290k to €390k 1975 BMW 3.0 CSL ‘Batmobile’
 
RM’s 250 GT TdF lies in the middle ground of desirability, below a 14-louvre version and above an open-headlight. Decent period racing history and 21-year Italian ownership are pluses. If it sells at a low-estimate €7m that will be c.$9.5m with RM’s new 15%/12.5% split premium – a world record price for a covered-headlamp, three-vent sail-panel car. A TdF we know well, we wish it luck.
 
The rest of the catalogue is familiar fare with some moderns that were missed last time (2011 Ferrari 599 GTO, 2015 Bugatti Veyron Grand Sport Vitesse, but no LaFerrari, McLaren P1 or Porsche 918), mixed in with RM staples: Ferrari ‘Daytona’, Ferrari 275 GTB and Porsche 911S.
 
How well the ex-Kinnunen 1973 Porsche 911 Carrera RS Lightweight and BMW ‘Batmobile’ do will be another test of today’s market. Both models have been softer recently.

One we’d like to take home? Another road Ferrari once owned by a member of the Works racing team, and this time in the wonderful period shade of Rosso Dino. It’s Gilles Villeneuve’s personal 1978 308 GTS (at a valve-bending €300k to €400k, but Without Reserve), an entry that would have done well at the Ferrari factory auction last September.
 
As always, K500 will give you the low-down as it happens.

You can download a complete lot listing sorted by make and model HERE.

Photos by Bonhams/RM Sotheby's